I agree with that point and yet, for some bizarre reason, nobody seems to care about that aspect of this entire mess - which is surreal in and of itself. Nevermind the fact that of the teams in the Atlantic, only Florida and Boston are actually within close distance to the actual Atlantic Ocean, for which they are named. Given Florida's cylindrical shape, I suppose you could put Tampa on that list too but it is literally located on another major body of water: the Gulf of Mexico. How bizarre is that?

None of those cities are anywhere near Atlantic anything. And when you compare that to the teams that comprise the Metropolitan the differences are ridiculous. Seriously, had someone come up with this on a message board, he/she would have been roundly dismissed as being an idiot.

I agree with those that said that the league should have reverted to the former divisional names of Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe. Alternatively, they could have gone with some combination of Gretzky, Lemieux, Howe and Orr. The Philadelphia fans would have gotten over hoisting a Lemieux Division banner and so would the Montreal Fans have forgiven the NHL for naming their division after the greatest defenseman who has ever lived - by a mile. Those controversies would have lasted a few weeks at most and then would be long forgotten.

That said, once the NHL decided to go with geographically based names, you can't do that for some but not for some of the others because that would be ridiculous. Fortunately for us, nobody does ridiculous quite like the NHL.

That would have been very simple with only Tampa Bay and Florida blatantly mislabeled; and Columbus and Pittsburgh to a lesser extent. Everyone would have understood completely. They also could have gone with Atlantic, Central, Midwest and Pacific. What they chose was stupid. In the end it's not a huge deal - it's just a name. However, it was an absolutely stupid name.

Odd Man Rush wrote:I agree with that point and yet, for some bizarre reason, nobody seems to care about that aspect of this entire mess - which is surreal in and of itself. Nevermind the fact that of the teams in the Atlantic, only Florida and Boston are actually within close distance to the actual Atlantic Ocean, for which they are named. Given Florida's cylindrical shape, I suppose you could put Tampa on that list too but it is literally located on another major body of water: the Gulf of Mexico. How bizarre is that?

None of those cities are anywhere near Atlantic anything. And when you compare that to the teams that comprise the Metropolitan the differences are ridiculous. Seriously, had someone come up with this on a message board, he/she would have been roundly dismissed as being an idiot.

I agree with those that said that the league should have reverted to the former divisional names of Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe. Alternatively, they could have gone with some combination of Gretzky, Lemieux, Howe and Orr. The Philadelphia fans would have gotten over hoisting a Lemieux Division banner and so would the Montreal Fans have forgiven the NHL for naming their division after the greatest defenseman who has ever lived - by a mile. Those controversies would have lasted a few weeks at most and then would be long forgotten.

That said, once the NHL decided to go with geographically based names, you can't do that for some but not for some of the others because that would be ridiculous. Fortunately for us, nobody does ridiculous quite like the NHL.

That would have been very simple with only Tampa Bay and Florida blatantly mislabeled; and Columbus and Pittsburgh to a lesser extent. Everyone would have understood completely. They also could have gone with Atlantic, Central, Midwest and Pacific. What they chose was stupid. In the end it's not a huge deal - it's just a name. However, it was an absolutely stupid name.

Bolded red above. Well if you look at it this way maybe "not so much." Both Tampa Bay & Florida are in the "Eastern" part of "North" America. Don't laugh. Or maybe yea, go ahead and laugh. Just havin' some fun guys & gals. Summer's gettin' long.

One more thing. The Brooklyn Islanders. Just doesn't SOUND right, does it?!